I had been scrapbooking for several years before I figured out this simple trick. Sometimes I need a small border around an element or photo to make it stand out like in the example above. The lion's mane is the same color as the background paper, so it blends in. I want the word art to look more like a sticker instead of a stamp. The easiest way to do this is to add a stroke. I'll walk you through this simple method in the tutorial below [. . .]

One of the problems with changing my site is that subscriptions from Elle Designs do not transfer over to the new site. Unfortunately that means that if you subscribed to email updates on Elle Designs and still wish to get updates, you will have to subscribe to Citrus and Mint to get email updates from the new blog. It doesn't take long, but some people have had trouble so I've included a photo tutorial here to help.

I highly recommend subscribing to email updates. It is how I follow all of my favorite blogs. What it means is that whenever I publish a new post, you will get that post in your email. Then you don't have to check back all the time to see if I wrote something new (I'm not very consistent, sorry). You should only get an email when I publish something new. I also recommend creating a scrapbook-only or favorite blog-only email account. It keeps things organized and doesn't clutter up important emails on your main account.

Another thing--to conserve space on the blog, I've added a "Read More" break to every post. That means that you will have to click "READ MORE" (under the dashed line) to finish reading the whole post. It is really annoying and I worried about people not seeing it, but I have to deal with it for now [. . .]

The Alexander alpha is the current fan freebie on the Citrus and Mint facebook page. Since alphas like these are more common for designers to buy, I thought I would share how to use this alpha for those who are unfamiliar. Alphas like this are really cool because you can basically create anything you want to match any kit [. . .]

Downloading from Mediafire can be really confusing. It works perfectly for most people, but then acts crazy for others. I have no idea why, but out of all of the free file sharing sites, it is the easiest for me to use. I offer my kits for free so paying for a file sharing site just doesn't make sense to me. To help avoid confusion I made the tutorial below [. . .]

The biggest advice I have to save hours of frustration when printing your scrapbook pages is to PREP AS YOU GO. It took me 5 books before I realized that life would be much easier when it came time to print if I prepped my pages as I finished them. Duh Rachel.

Pick a size: Before you even scrap a page, decide on the final size of your book. I usually do 12x12 books, but I have printed 8.5x11, 10x10, and 8x8. Make sure that it is always set for 300 dpi. For all square books design your layouts at 12x12. You can always make them smaller, but you lose quality when you make them bigger.

Proofread: Don't skip this step. Trust me. I have books with many spelling errors and some books with even bigger errors like "I didn't know you went to Bear Lake" "Oops, supposed it's to be Bass Lake" or "I didn't know you went on a Disney cruise last year" "Oops, we went three years ago." Proofread titles, journaling, dates, names, captions, make sure every layer has a shadow (except for fonts), etc.

Save: Save your layout as a .jpeg file with the quality set to 12 (highest quality). Create a folder for all of your finished jpeg files. Name the page something useful, like the page number it will be or the title of the page.

Bleed: Bleed is the caution area required so that nothing important gets cut off in the printing process. Bleed is confusing, and then combined with the space lost where the binding is, I've just found it easier to add a .25 inch white border around all of my pages as a safety measure. Then I never have to worry about uploading my pages as 12.25x12.25 or making sure that elements, photos, and journaling are .25 inches from the edge of the page. To do this I save the page as a jpeg and then drag it onto a template that I've made (you can download below) and saved it again as a jpeg to a folder called "jpeg with border." Download white border template HERE or black border template HERE.

Upload as you go: As soon as you finish a page, or a set of pages, save them and upload them to the printer's site. Uploading takes FOREVER, even on a fast internet connection. It is so much easier to upload them 5 at a time as you finish them, rather than 78 pages the night before your coupon expires.

without safety border

I like to scrap to the very edge--and in this layout, some journaling, the title, and a photo could potentially get cut off in the printing process.

with safety border

It does make the layout a little smaller, but when the book is 12x12, looking at a 11.75x11.75 layout is still pretty big. Plus the white border is not distracting.

Printing digital scrapbooking pages is the worst part of scrapbooking for me. It takes forever and can be really frustrating. Plus I always have a mini-heart attack when I see the total price of printing a book. Eek! But all of that goes away when you get your book in the mail. Your book, your pages, your memories now recorded forever. I've had a few friends recently ask me questions about how I print my scrapbook pages, so I thought I'd do a three-part series on what I've learned while navigating this complicated process.

**Special note: This review is for people printing completed scrapbook pages, meaning they created those pages in Photoshop NOT with the printer's online program. [. . .]

This is part two of the drop shadow tutorials. Make sure you understand the basics first (find that tutorial here). Today's tutorial will be about warping shadows. Sometimes I get jealous of real Photoshop users because they can do so much more with shadows, like warp them. When you look at shadows in real life, the shadow usually doesn't follow the edge evenly on all sides. But that is the only option you have on PSE, even after altering. That is okay on most things, but sometimes you need to do more with things like strings that don't lay perfectly flat. To illustrate what I mean, look at my examples below (click to enlarge if you need to). Look at the blue string. With the regular shadow it looks flat. That's fine, but then look at the warped shadow. More realistic right?

regular shadow

warped shadow

I was going to do my own tutorial, but then I found this excellent one online. Why reinvent the wheel?

Drop shadows are key to taking a layout from looking computer-generated to looking like you made it with actual paper supplies. They add depth and realism. In order to achieve that realistic look, you have to venture out of the default drop shadow setting. I promise it is easy. (side note: I use Photoshop Elements, but in Photoshop CS you can do more things with shadows to make them look realistic like warp them and choose the blend mode. Sadly I cannot, so this tutorial will not include changing those settings) [. . .]

no shadows

This has no shadows (except for the "tickles" whose shadow was saved permanently, oops). See how flat it looks?

default shadows

With default shadows, everything seems to be 'floating' on top of each other instead of layered. Open this up larger to really see the difference between this and altered shadows.

altered shadows

This looks a little more realistic. The photos and papers look like they are 'resting' on top of the other layers rather than 'floating' in space.

I love the magnetic lasso tool. It is so smart! It will trace along an object in your picture so you can cut it out. It isn't perfect and takes some practice, but it is lots of fun. Especially if you want to doctor pictures :). This method works best on pictures where there is high contrast between the object and the background (that's how the lasso senses where to trace). You can always fix errors by closing the loop and pressing ctrl+D to deselect the marching ants to start over. You can also cover up mistakes by using a layer mask. I used to erase the extras on my pictures, but if you erase too much, too bad, so sorry, it's gone forever. With layer masks, that is not the case. Photoshop Elements doesn't come with layer masks, but the Coffeeshop blog has created an action that will make one for you. You need to download and install the action before doing this tutorial (it's free and easy-she has detailed instructions on her site on how to install them. scroll down to see the download button). She also has wonderful photo actions that you can apply to your pictures to make them beautiful.

cut outs using the magnetic lasso and layer masks

In my opinion, templates are the biggest money waster in all of digital scapbooking. First of all because most of them usually only showcase ONE or two pictures. Seriously? C'mon. (My ghetto students used to pronounce that as "see-mon") Who really only has one picture to scrap? Secondly, because they are so easy to make! Unless a layout is really fancy and includes shapes or other things I can't make myself, I choose to make my own. I learned that the hard way after doing the layout below.

Hers is cute. Mine is so ugly that it is cringe-worthy. I hate it. Plus it took me hours and hours and hours to do. Should have just bought the template. But remember that this is the exception. In the tutorial below I will show you how I made my own template from the layout on the lower left for my page on the lower right.